#1 — The best partners in the world

Surprising. Inspiring. Different. We stand for top content. And where does great content come from? Internationally famous cinematographers, award-winning production companies and major archives – the most brilliant filmmakers work with us.

Early in 2001, a small team of filmmakers set up a new stock footage agency. The “quality over quantity” approach adopted by us along with a few hand-picked filmmaker friends, as they challenged the major international companies dominating the sector, soon won over growing numbers of colleagues. Today, we proudly present the second-largest global portfolio of high-quality rights managed footage. We have maintained our regional character and our personal touch even as we have developed internationally. Our staff in a host of countries on every continent nurture fair and friendly relationships with our customers and colleagues. We are still as different now – and proud of it – as we were back then.

Because we hail from the sector ourselves, we know what we are talking about, make promises we can keep, and are trusted today by over 800 renowned contributors.

#2 — Maximum quality

We spare neither effort nor petabytes in our quest to supply you with uncompromising quality, bit for bit, so your post-production can start from a sound base.

What use is the best footage from the greatest cinematographers if it hasn’t been treated well? We guarantee that the original quality of footage is preserved and that you will receive footage just as it has been supplied to us:

Once 10 bit, always 10 bit – once 12 bit, always 12 bit
We store footage uncompressed in its original resolution with no scrimping on bits and bytes! We are the only stock footage provider in the world to use the chroma subsampling scheme 4:4:4 when the original footage was shot in RAW or 4:4:4. This means our archive workflow preserves the full fidelity of the colour information in each clip and delivers it to you in our master play-out process.
If a clip has been filmed in top quality on Red or Alexa, you can be sure we will provide it to you in exactly the same stunning quality. We also archive the uncorrected raw files along with our colour-corrected ProRes footage masters to ensure we will be able to meet the specific requirements of all our clients.

Professional options you won’t pay extra for
Many options available for selection in our master playout process are included in our handling fees. These include: • framerate conversion • delivery in the original resolution • additional options for common post codecs like Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD.

On request, we can also supply you with raw footage, or take care of some post work for you like de-graining and dirt removal.

Small details can make a big difference. Especially in colour grading: the top image of the two above clearly shows undesirable colour banding in the sky gradient. These artifacts result from the image compression used by most microstock agencies. Our uncompressed quality – ready for every use – is shown underneath.

#3 — Expertise on demand

Our team of experts can also work on your project directly – we are at your service! We would be happy to help you realize your ideas, from initial research through to obtaining footage, clarifying rights and negotiating with rights holders throughout the world:
We find material – even on rolls of film in historical archives.
We find professionals – even camera teams in far-flung corners of the globe.
We clarify rights – even for third-party footage from video platforms or other archives.

Benefit from our years of expert experience in every area of motion picture production, research, and rights clearance and from our network of specialists around the world.

#4 — Keywording with added value

People make associations machines cannot follow when they look at images. That’s why we use specialists and not image recognition
software to tag footage with keywords crafted by people and for people, clip by clip.

Many photography and video archives force or permit their suppliers to determine the keywords that will be used to find their footage. Or automatic image recognition software is deployed. Both options cut down on manpower requirements in the archives, but often lead to poor-quality search results that frustrate customers who end up wasting time on fruitless searches and not being able to find what they need.

We have been refining our very own keywording tool for 15 years now to incorporate our experience, feedback from our partners and customers, and a generous dose of intuition. This “dictionary” grows bigger by the day and now contains well over 80,000 keywords that are hierarchically structured and have been translated into six languages. Queries are also possible in an additional language, Latin, when scientifically accurate results for flora and fauna are required.

“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” – assigning keywords to images is a complex area. Many images have meanings that lie beyond the obvious. Consider 1. facts: in an experiment, we see the yellow rose frozen in liquid nitrogen shattering in slow motion as it falls onto a hard surface. 2. connotations: fragility, vulnerability, transience. And 3. emotions such as melancholy, grief, and hopelessness. Searching for the right words? We let you hunt for them in any of seven languages.

#5 — Working together to find more

Sometimes finding a needle in a haystack seems easier than locating the right stock footage for your project. Or at least finding it in the quality you need. Your budget is to low to shoot it yourself, or you are out of sync with the seasons, or you can’t get hold of the right camera team. Well, do not despair –
we still have a few tricks up our sleeve.

We find footage
With us, you aren’t limited to the material in our webshop (search tips) – we can also draw on other resources to find the most suitable footage for your project:
We dig deep: on top of the footage available online, we have quite a bit of treasure offline in our archive. We know where to find what you are looking for and would be happy to create shot lists for you.
Free of charge!
We make enquiries: Our global network is getting bigger all the time and already encompasses more than 800 footage contributors. We know who the specialists in your particular area are, and we can make targeted enquiries.
Free of charge!
We research: even with thousands of hours of footage in our shop and even more offline, our material and our contributors cannot cover every request. This is where our specialist tricks come in handy: for historical material, in particular, trawling through the depths of major archives can prove worthwhile. Or casting our dragnet in video platforms around the world. We know where to look and have the specialists and expertise for the job. We invoice this service at a rate of
90 euros per hour.

If we still cannot find exactly what you need, we can put you in touch with skilled cinematographers at locations throughout the world and negotiate optimal terms and conditions on your behalf.

We find quality:
There’s no need to pay for a full scale new film production if you’ve found the perfect image but the quality still leaves a lot to be desired:
We can often prepare or arrange for higher quality scans of suitable historical material.
We also have ways and means of identifying the creators and rights holders of footage on YouTube, Vimeo and other online platforms or of finding similar shots.

Finding footage to match an image
If you are looking for stock footage to go with a specific photograph, you can upload any reference image to our webshop using the
"Upload reference image" feature and you will automatically receive instant similar search results. Try it and see!
Here's how visual search works

No time? Not in the mood? Don’t know where to look? We can help you find your dream material – with our expertise, our global network and our magic box of tricks.

#6 — Rights clearance for every eventuality

Copyrights for images and footage in stock photo and video archives are normally not an issue. But what about third-party rights?
You shouldn’t take risks with your advertising campaign, company image film, public presentations, exhibitions, shows, or cinema and TV projects.

Copyrights are included with all our licences. Commercial use of footage can require rights clearance if people or protected objects are depicted, and it may be necessary to secure permission to use it. Yellow marking indicates such footage.
Commercial usage.

Predicting licensing fees accurately
Talk to us before mentioning figures for third-party rights like talent fees for celebrities! Yours wouldn’t be the first great project to fall through because the actual licensing fees turned out to be much higher than the budgets determined in advance.

We have a comprehensive database chock-full of cost examples for the use of stars and celebrities from every epoch. We also know which celebrities don’t allow their image to be used for commercial purposes at all. In most cases, our experienced team can give you realistic estimates on the feasibility of your project. We provide this service to customers
at no charge.

Rights clearance service: clarification of all rights, including YouTube and Vimeo videos
We identify rights holders and conducts negotiations over any usage fees which may be payable. We offer this service both for our own stock footage and for material from other sources such as YouTube or Vimeo.
In order to be able to gauge how recognisable people and/or objects are and to clarify possible third-party claims, we need information on your planned use of footage, ideally accompanied by a layout cut, or, if sequences are to be used, by time codes.

Each individual right to be clarified (personality rights, rights to brands, rights of organizations, audio rights, third party copyrights, panorama rights and more)
costs 450 euros, regardless of the complexity of the research or whether the rights clearance is successful.
This includes negotiations with rights holders. Commission is only payable when usage rights are successfully secured.

Stars are expensive – that goes without saying. But who would have guessed that the talent fees of the “originals” have to be clarified and honoured even when doubles are used? Simply imitating the likes of Michael Jackson saves on neither rights clearance nor licensing fees. We can clarify the rights to authentic material.

#7 — Stills from all videos

Some events were filmed, but never photographed. We have the films – and you can easily obtain licenses for photos from them. Or do you need the same picture
subjects as stills and as video for your cross-media projects? You can choose from millions of photos for every requirement.

We are the only footage agency to license individual stills from every shot. Professional video is now shot at 4K. This means that stills from 4K footage are eminently suitable for high res printing in 300 DPI at the full-bleed size even when large formats are required.
With 6K footage, even posters can be printed in high resolution.

Rare photography subjects, top-quality images
In contrast to stock photography agencies, we provide you with access to rare images of subjects and events at which no photographs were taken, as is often the case with historical material. The original historical footage in our archives has been scanned in HD or 2K quality. Such high quality images are rarely available in conventional photo archives. Where original 35 mm negative material is available, we can even provide you with stunning 4K footage and images if you should require them!

Finding the perfect moment
You will receive a full second of footage for each image you select in our photo area. Having the choice of at least 24 frames per second will enable you to choose the picture perfect moment as well as creating interesting sequence or stroboscopic effects – features your creative team will appreciate.

Savings on licensing fees
Even as you select images for use in, for example, a print magazine, you are already uncovering just the right videos to accompany your content in digital media. And the reverse is also the case. Since you can obtain licences for individual stills from us, you can hold off on acquiring licences for footage until such time as you need it. This system of dedicated licensing for specific usages is kind to your production budget.

Vast collection of stills
The choice is yours: as we approach the mark of one million videos on thousands of topics, we already have more than 6,500 hours of footage online. Each shot is an average of 30 seconds long; at 24 frames per second, that adds up to, well… millions of images! Selectable, licensable and available for download at any time.

How does it work?

Search: use the search function to find your photo subject, switch from the Video to the Stills tab, and then use the yellow skimmer to browse through the footage: you will see one still for each second of footage.

Select: click to choose your still.

Collect: save your selection in a photography shot list. You can request a preview of material on the list, in high-resolution if desired (with a watermark).

Purchase: or you can license selected material for your project directly, pay for it easily online (prices from 46 euros per photo) and use the images right away.

*The exact picture you are looking for might occur between two previews. You will still be able to find it: each still selected includes all the frames in that second (so half a second before and half a second after your selection). This means you have the choice of at least 24 pictures per still selected and can identify the perfect moment from the video.

Some scenes only exist on film: Eva Braun enjoyed recording scenes from everyday life at the Berghof, Hitler’s alpine residence. Was Adolf Hitler behind the camera this time?

Picking the perfect moment: We let you choose from every single frame in the second of footage you have selected for stills.